As I type this I just finished playing this tournament. My initial thoughts are, I’m not sure how many more of these hot summer 2 round tournaments I’ll ever play again. lol.. I wanted to challenge myself and play this tournament not just for the skill required but also the physical endurance needed to actually play decent and finish the entire tournament without passing out from the heat & humidity. lol.. I had played a practice round the Wednesday before this event and did surprisingly very well so I thought I might have a decent chance at doing well at the tournament.
The Friday before the event they also had a 1 round Flex start tournament out there in the same layout I did well the Wednesday before in practice so I thought I’d play that and try to replicate my success on the course. But I didn’t realize just how good the weather conditions were on Wednesday compared to Friday. So during the 1 round Flex start on Friday the heat and humidity would end up being the biggest competitor and I fell flat and played poorly during the round, even though I played against the young guys in MA2 and ended up in 3rd place. 🙂 But after playing in the heat on Friday and ending up with a mild case of heat stroke (muscle cramps are no joke) I contemplated dropping out of the event. But Friday evening I was starting to feel better. I purchased some clothes that would allow my skin to breathe / air out better during the hot humidity, plus I made sure to properly hydrate much better before the event and more importantly during the event.
As usual my excitement of playing in a tournament never allows me to get a good night’s sleep. Even in my 60s now, for some reason I’m like a kid when it comes to any kind of athletic sport’s competition, jamming live in front of an audience, etc and it’s oh so very hard for me to get a decent night’s sleep. If I can muster 3-5 hours of sleep the night before an event, I’m doing great. lol.. For this event unfortunately I’m up almost all night long with excitement and probably only get 2-3 hours of sleep.
One of my disc golf buds (and a top 10 AM70 Grandmaster) Michael England had given me some interesting advice not to warm up so long, usually I warm up 30-60 minutes before an event, this didn’t work out well on Friday because of the heat so I decided to take him up on his advice and only warm up for about 15 minutes before tee off time for the Saturday tournament.
I felt strong during the warm up, I felt good leading up to the initial tee off at 8:00am. Everything felt good, I was ready to give it my all and hopefully have a decent chance at winning this tournament!
Drives were ok…upshots were fine. But my putting surprisingly was way off. I kept missing a lot of putts by only inches too low. It was very frustrating to say the least. My biggest competitor came out strong in the first round. Greg Relyea was playing a very solid round and took a commanding lead by 4 strokes after the first round. Round 2 was from the shorts, I knew from my earlier round in this layout there was plenty of birdie ops to be had. I knew in round 2 it was only going to be about the drive and putting, upshots would not be a factor if I had any chance of winning.
So round 2 starts and once again… I’m missing my putts by inches too low. After 4 holes I’m frustrated and now 5 strokes back and things are looking a little bleak because I’m also starting to get muscle cramps again.
I really wanted to finish this tournament (as I’ve never played it before) so I downed 2 Liquid IVs (and 2 more later in the round!) and immediately started to feel better. I had a run of 4 birdies to put myself back into contention. We went back and forth a bit, had a couple more birdies, but Greg took a couple of bogies and there wasn’t much room to get those strokes back.
Going into the last hole I had a 1 stroke lead, I thought Greg parked his drive, when he made his putt I told him we were tied and it was time for a playoff. He said, nope that was for par because he was deep in the brush and only advanced a few feet on his approach. Then he realized what I said and that meant I had won the tournament. Man, I felt bad because he played such a solid tournament and really only 2 holes was the difference. But in the end…there can be only 1, and I’m stoked to win this tournament!
I think my overall game is definitely progressing, the only major factor is still and again… my putting. I’m just going to have to put in more time practicing putting if I want any chance of being in the top 50 of my age group… in the world. I just ordered another practice basket, a portable Veterans Basket, this is the same basket used at a lot of events. This will allow me to putt back and forth at two targets and get twice as many putts in the same time frame due to not having to walk back to putt again.
I still think this could end up being the best disc golf year of my disc golf career. Let’s see how the 2nd half of the season, as it cools off outside, pans out. 😉
June 17, 2024
